Dan Futterman

Dan Futterman had an impressive run for a young actor, transitioning easily between stage, television and film for fifteen years before penning the Academy Award-nominated script for "Capote" (2005) a...
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Upon hearing of Robin Williams' death, I witnessed many a friend attempt to choose his or her favorite of the actors' many terrific films... most of these attempts dissolved into chaotic indecision. So let's make it easier — while Williams' dramatic genius is well documented in pictures like Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society, his penchant for the dark and twisted well chronicled in Insomnia and One Hour Photo, we'll always have a very special place in our hearts for his comedy. As such, we limit our expedition to this realm: which is Robin Williams' funniest role?
There are a few candidates that leap out as frontrunners — Mrs. Doubtfire, for one. It's hard to top a film in which a grown man, disguised as a husky Scottish nanny, tosses a piece of fruit at Pierce Brosnan. But we'd be remiss to discount some of Williams' other laugh riots: He's delightful in the courageous and sharp Good Morning, Vietnam. He's outrageously kooky in the oddball dark comedy The Fisher King. And without even showing his face, he's a tour de force in Disney's Aladdin. Peruse the complete list of Williams laughers below, and then chime in with your feelings.
MRS. DOUBTFIREWilliams plays a newly separated father of three who dresses up like a kindly housekeeper in order to spend time with his estranged kids.Funniest moment: An unexpected run-in with the legal representative charged with determining his aptitude as a parent (and human being) forces Williams to dash from room to room, donning and shedding his Mrs. Doubtfire disguise, juggling accents and sticking his face in pies.
GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM Williams plays a 'Nam-based disc jockey keeps his Army base lively with his irreverent radio show.Funniest moment: Any one of Williams' rapid fire on-air bits (much to the chagrin of the stuffed shirts in charge).
THE FISHER KINGWilliams plays a delusional derelict who entertains Medieval fantasies years after the death of his wife.Funniest moment: Williams' forceful escort of new friend Jack (Jeff Bridges) across the street, completely unfazed by oncoming traffic.
POPEYEWilliams plays a live action version of the animated sailor on a perplexing and listless quest through the neighborhood of Sweethaven.Funniest moment: Williams' genius is in his sardonic murmurs; after every ridiculous affirmation by one of the lively Sweethaven residents, Williams will mutter something nearly unintelligible and certainly hilarious under his breath.
THE BIRDCAGE Williams plays a gay nightclub owner who is married to his star performer (Nathan Lane) and father to a notably ungrateful young buck (Dan Futterman) who brings his girlfriend and her conservative parents over for dinner... prompting Lane to dress up as a woman. We're noticing a trend.Funniest moment: In truth, Williams is the straight man in this picture, letting Lane take most of the broad, wild comedy. But he does have plenty of good deadpan one-liners to enjoy.
PATCH ADAMSWilliams plays a doctor who holds dear to the maxim that laugher is the best medicine when he makes it his mission to lift the spirits of his ailing patients.Funniset moment: That old lady squeezing noodles can't be beat.
ALADDINWilliams plays an all powerful Genie, tasked with the wishes (and friendship) of dopey street rat Aladdin when the latter discovers his magical lamp.Funniest moments: It's gotta be his entrance. Williams puts on a veritable stand-up routine when he meets "Al" for the first time in the dank caves below the desert.
Which is your favorite? Cast your vote!

Let's get that inevitable comparison of Sigourney Weaver's powerhouse Secretary of State Elaine Barrish in USA's six-part miniseries Political Animals (which premiered last night) to our own powerhouse Secretary of State Hillary Clinton out of the way. Yes, both ran for President and lost the nomination to a younger, more charming candidate; both were former First Ladies whose President husband had notorious extramarital affairs; both are seen as ambitious ball busters; and both can rock a serious power suit.
Still, despite all these obvious nods to Hil, the comparison does a disservice to both women. For just as many similarities as they have, there are stark differences as well (including Weaver's Barrish not having a daughter, but two sons.) But, the biggest difference is that Clinton's story is nowhere near as dull as the one that plays out in Political Animals.
It's a problem that is through no fault of its leading lady. Weaver's ability to work with any kind of material is nothing new. The stunning 62-year-old Oscar-nominated actress, who has been one of Hollywood's most versatile stars for nearly 30 years, only seems to get better with age. But even in Political Animals, which boasts an impressive cast that could carry its own weight if needed (thanks to the likes of James Wolk, Dylan Baker, and fellow Oscar-nominee Ellen Burstyn), Weaver's powerful presence still can't save the mediocre summer soap opera.
When we first meet Elaine Barrish, it's on the night of her concession speech — having lost her bid to the White House to a young, Italian Democrat named Garcetti (Adrian Pasdar) — with her smiling, supportive family by her side. However, it's not until after giving an invigorating, rousing speech in which she vows to American women that she will see a female President in her lifetime, that we really meet them behind closed doors.
And boy, are they one dysfunctional bunch. There's her pair of sons — the gay, drug-addicted, suicidal T.J. (Sebastian Stan), the put-together, politico-in-the-making Douglas (Wolk), and his demure fiance with an eating disorder, Anne (Brittany Ishibashi). There's her boozy, opinionated lightning rod of a mother-in-law (Burstyn) and her husband, former President Bud Hammon (a cartoonish, cigar-chomping Ciaran Hinds.) They all tend to say exactly what's on their mind, often in pay cable-friendly language. Within the first ten minutes, they utilize their place on USA by saying things like "homos," "s**t show," "douche," and "nutsack." So edgy.
Fast forward two years later, a now-divorced Elaine (she promptly asked her husband for a divorce after her concession speech) is down a philandering spouse (who is now dating a busty, vapid television star), but still has plenty of drama in her life. She's got her Pulitzer-winning nemesis Susan Berg (Carla Gugino) as a thorn in her side again when, years after breaking her husband's affair scandal, she inadvertently lets a story about T.J.'s failed suicide go public. (Her own cheating boyfriend/editor, played by Dan Futterman, gives the story to his blogging, cupcake-baking mistress. Oh great, another stunning victory for Internet Girls everywhere.)
Then there's also an ass-grabbing Russian foreign minister ("I will f**k your s**t up," she warns him in his native language) and a hostage situation in Iran with three American journalists to deal with. Still, Barrish manages to handle it all with ass-kicking grace. (If there ever was such a thing to possess, Weaver most certainly does.) By the time she tells a secret service agent in confidence that she's going to run for President again and win, you don't doubt her for one second.
And thankfully, viewers won't have to wait long to find out if that is the case. While Weaver (who might as well make space on her mantle for an Emmy now) makes the whole surprisingly bland thing watchable, the show (which aims for The West Wing, but hits the Dallas target instead) isn't necessarily worthy of her talents. There's no doubt the show will do well, especially as a summer program, considering it has three winning ingredients: graphic sex scenes, oft ludicrous dialogue ("Never call a bitch a bitch. Us bitches hate that"), and it doesn't take up much of your time (six weeks, to be exact.)
Political Animals doesn't quite know what it wants to be, ping-ponging between compelling, girl-power political drama and silly, ineffective family soap opera, but it gets one thing absolutely right: Sigourney Weaver cannot be tamed.
Political Animals airs on Sundays at 10 PM ET on USA.
[Photo credit: USA Network]
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Political Animals

If you were catching up on The Office last night and the thought, "I wonder what Steve Carrell is doing now that he's off the show?" you now have the answer. And it's quite shocking.
Carrell is teaming up with Moneyball director Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher, the story of millionaire Jon du Pont, who was theorized to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and went on, at the age of 59, to murder Olympic wrestler Dave Shultz. The role is quite a stretch for Carrell, whose comedic background isn't an obvious fit for the tortured du Pont, but definitely an interesting choice.
Foxcatcher was written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, the latter nominated for an Oscar for his last collaboration with Miller, Capote. How much of du Pont's life the film chronicles is unknown, but as a member of the Philadelphia elite and enthusiast of many a hobby, the man's life is a peppered with material screaming to be woven into the biopic's scope.
Foxcatcher (a reference to du Pont's farm) is set to shoot this March, meaning we could see Carrell's grand performance sometime in 2012.
Source: Variety

A Mighty Heart is based on a tragedy of which we all know the gruesome outcome: the capture and eventual murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman) whose execution footage was widely seen on the Internet. On Jan. 23 2002 in Karachi Pakistan Danny thought he was heading to an interview regarding “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid and his pregnant wife Mariane (Angelina Jolie) herself a journalist thought the two of them were going to have dinner afterwards; both of them were wrong. Danny gets tricked by a cab driver and later his interviewee ending up in the hands of his kidnappers and eventual murderers. For the next several weeks Mariane—with help from Danny’s associate (Archie Panjabi); a Karashi police detective (Irrfan Khan); an American security agent (Will Patton); and Danny’s Wall Street Journal superior (Denis O'Hare) and colleague (Gary Wilmes)—embarks on her own frantic investigation tracking any and all leads retracing steps and most importantly remaining optimistic. Her efforts as we now know were in vain but her spirit was never broken. In fact Mariane winds up with the ultimate keepsake of her slain husband: their son Adam to whom she dedicates her memoir of the tragedy entitled A Mighty Heart. Angelina Jolie is the unequivocal heart of A Mighty Heart both on screen and off. On screen her fame is almost too large for small fare like this but this particular movie which boasts the most compelling story imaginable would be the least compelling movie imaginable without her performance. Off screen even Mariane Pearl’s highly regarded memoir would probably not have been enough to greenlight the big-screen version without a Jolie-sized endorsement. It’s easy to forget that Jolie is an actress before a paprazzi target but this movie refreshes our memory. She may not necessarily deserve the Oscar but the writing is on the wall what with the Best Actress Trifecta: played-down looks a real-life character and a foreign accent. There’s also a gut-wrenching scene—you can imagine the point in the story at which it occurs—which might as well have had “Future Oscar Reel” scrolling across the bottom. The other actors are rendered almost nonexistent. Futterman who wrote the Capote screenplay is an eerily perfect match for Pearl all the way down to his first name but barely appears in the movie. Veteran actor Patton meanwhile must have been a dead-on physical match for his real-life character because his performance consistently seems on a different wavelength as compared to the others. The two prominent foreign actors Panjabi (Bend It Like Beckham) and Khan (The Namesake) greatly outperform Patton in this case but luckily everyone is given a free pass aboard the Jolie Train. British director Michael Winterbottom’s A Mighty Heart is an Angelina Jolie away from being totally insignificant. Granted it’s Mariane Pearl’s story to tell and Jolie is meant to have the spotlight shining solely and brightly on her but where Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People) intended for the movie to seem visceral it is actually suspenseless. Recent fact-for-fact successes United 93 and Zodiac two stylistically different works of nonfiction excelled because their directors managed to squeeze out suspense from stories whose endings we already knew. In Heart Winterbottom seems more concerned with getting the facts and cinematography right than taking us inside Mariane Pearl’s head or plight and thus the movie could've actually benefited from some embellishment here and there. After the success of The Road to Guantanamo Winterbottom is still deep in docudrama mode but this isn’t a documentary and it’s not particularly dramatic. For the most part the talented director’s Heart is just in the wrong place.

Capote screenwriter Dan Futterman has secretly been cast opposite Angelina Jolie in a film about slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Jolie made headlines last month when it was announced she was playing Pearl's widow, Marianne, in the film adaptation of her 2003 memoir, A Mighty Heart.
But Paramount Pictures made no mention at the time of who would be playing her husband, leading many to speculate the role was yet to be cast.
In fact, Futterman, who is best known for his recurring role on TV drama Judging Amy, had already been selected and was secretly filming in Pakistan.
The casting was kept a closely guarded secret because of security concerns and crewmembers were sworn to secrecy during the 10-day shoot on location in Karachi and Islamabad.
Director Michael Winterbottom and a skeleton crew went to Pakistan undercover, hoping to be mistaken for a documentary or news crew.
Futterman, who agreed to be interviewed only after he returned to the U.S., tells the Washington Post, "It was important to shoot in the actual places where things happened.
"There are lots of little things that were important to (Winterbottom), not least of all the people and the sound of the language spoken."
Pearl was a respected journalist at the time he was abducted and killed in Pakistan--four months before his wife gave birth to their son--while researching a story about Muslim fundamentalists.
Article Copyright Entertainment News Network All Rights Reserved.

The Constant Gardener is leading the pack ahead of next month's British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards after picking up 10 nominations.
Rachel Weisz, who won the Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Golden Globe on Monday, is nominated for Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, while Ralph Fiennes is up for Actor in a Leading Role and filmmaker Fernando Meirelles is put forward for the David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction.
Hot on the heels of The Constant Gardener are gay cowboy heartbreaker Brokeback Mountain and politically charged Crash, which have both received nine nominations for the Feb. 19 awards ceremony.
Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee is nominated for the David Lean Award, and his stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams have all received recognition for their performances.
Hit British movie Pride and Prejudice has been named in six BAFTA categories including British Film of the Year and Actress in a Supporting Role for Brenda Blethyn's scene-stealing performance.
George Clooney is up for two awards—Actor in a Supporting Role for Syriana and Achievement in Direction for his handling of Good Night, And Good Luck—which has scooped six nominations.
Oscars favorites and Walk the Line co-stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon have both been nominated for their acclaimed acting in the Johnny Cash biopic, while Chinese beauty Ziyi Zhang is up for the Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA for her star turn in the big screen version of Arthur Golden's best-selling novel Memoirs of a Geisha.
The partial list of nominees is as follows:
Best Film:
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
The Constant Gardener
Crash
Good Night, And Good Luck
The Alexander Korda Award for the Outstanding British Film of the Year:
A Cock and Bull Story
The Constant Gardener
Festival
Pride and Prejudice
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer in Their First Feature Film:
David Belton (Producer)--Shooting Dogs
Peter Fudakowski (Producer)--Tsotsi
Annie Griffin (Director/Writer)—Festival
Richard Hawkins (Director)--Everything
Joe Wright (Director)--Pride and Prejudice
The David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction:
Brokeback Mountain--Ang Lee
Capote--Bennett Miller
The Constant Gardener--Fernando Meirelles
Crash--Paul Haggis
Good Night, And Good Luck--George Clooney
Best Original Screenplay:
Cinderella Man--Cliff Hollingsworth/Akiva Goldsman
Crash--Paul Haggis/Bobby Moresco
Good Night, And Good Luck--George Clooney/Grant Heslov
Hotel Rwanda--Keir Pearson/Terry George
Mrs. Henderson Presents--Martin Sherman
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Brokeback Mountain--Larry Mcmurtry/Diana Ossana
Capote--Dan Futterman
The Constant Gardener--Jeffrey Caine
A History of Violence--Josh Olson
Pride and Prejudice--Deborah Moggach
Best Film Not in the English Language:
De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped)
Le Grand Voyage
Kung Fu Hustle
Joyeux Noël
Tsotsi
Best Actor in a Leading Role:
David Strathairn--Good Night, And Good Luck
Heath Ledger--Brokeback Mountain
Joaquin Phoenix--Walk the Line
Philip Seymour Hoffman--Capote
Ralph Fiennes--The Constant Gardener
Best Actress in a Leading Role:
Charlize Theron--North Country
Judi Dench--Mrs. Henderson Presents
Rachel Weisz--The Constant Gardener
Reese Witherspoon--Walk the Line
Ziyi Zhang--Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Don Cheadle--Crash
George Clooney--Good Night, And Good Luck
George Clooney--Syriana
Jake Gyllenhaal--Brokeback Mountain
Matt Dillon--Crash
Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Brenda Blethyn--Pride and Prejudice
Catherine Keener--Capote
Frances Mcdormand--North Country
Michelle Williams--Brokeback Mountain
Thandie Newton--Crash
Article Copyright World Entertainment News Network All Rights Reserved.

It was a maverick kind of morning as the nominations for the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards were announced, honoring some of this year’s most affecting, avant garde and anti-studio independent film offerings.
Actress Laura Linney teamed up with Mark Ruffalo--the two co-starred in the acclaimed indie You Can Count On Me in 2000--to announce the nominees at Beverly Hills’ Le Meridian hotel, and despite some challenging tongue-twisting names on the list, they made it through admirably. Linney was rewarded for her trip in from New York with her own nomination as Best Female Lead in The Squid and the Whale.
Ruffalo, meanwhile, seemed to anxiously await his own name being called in the Lead Male and Supporting Male categories, but after he came up empty he suddenly realized: “Oh, I wasn’t in any independent movies this year.”
Several of Linney’s collaborators on The Squid and the Whale, about the painful, messy split of a couple with two sons, fared very well, with nominations going to writer-director Noah Baumbach (Best Director, Best Screenplay), co-stars Jeff Daniels (Best Male Lead) and Jesse Eisenberg (Best Supporting Male) and the film itself was nominated as Best Feature. The film led all nominations with a total of six.
Linney told Hollywood.com that she knew from the moment she finished the screenplay that the project was something extra special: “Noah gave me the script about five years ago, and it took a long time to get it made,” Linney said. “That’s one thing about independent films: you connect yourself to these projects and you don’t know how long it’s going to take to get them made. So when they finally DO get made, and you have to make them under difficult circumstances, always--because the budget is low, you don’t have the time--and then they reach their potential, and then they’re as good as you think they were going to be, as good as your instinct tells you they will be. And then you have a day like today, where there’s nominations and blah, blah, blah. It strengthens your faith in what you do.”
Other high-profile indies scoring multiple noms included stylish, historic look at journalistic principles Good Night and Good Luck (Best Feature, Best Cinematography, George Clooney for Best Director and David Strathairn for Best Male Lead), the gay themed Brokeback Mountain (Best Feature, Ang Lee for Best Director, Michelle Williams for Best Supporting Female and Heath Ledger as Best Lead Male), the insightful biopic Capote (Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Philip Seymour Hoffman for Best Male Lead), the Tommy Lee Jones-directed The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Barry Pepper for Best Supporting Male) and the gender-bending Transamerica (Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay and Felicity Huffman for Best Female Lead)
“It’s really nice for morale,” Linney said of the nominations for all of the indies honored, especially because many of them only get made through perseverance, ingenuity, and commitment--and typically without the big bucks that fuel most studio films.
“Independent film is great fun, but making an independent movie is tough and hard,” she explained. “The hours are rough, the resources are low, you work really, really hard, and so when you hear of a fun, glitzy thing to go to where all of us can celebrate and hoot and holler, it’s really, really nice. It’s also terrific for awareness of these kinds of films, so audiences can be aware of this sort of genre.”
Linney said that those who work in independent film share a bond and welcome any opportunity to meet, bond and share their experiences. “It is a community of people, it really is,” the actress said. “You can look at award shows from a business perspective, but then you can look at them from a community perspective. There is a reason for them other than just acknowledgement of merit for business. There’s also a community of people coming together and being able to run up to the director of the movie that you saw that loved and be able to go ‘Oh my God, you’re amazing.’ And that’s important--and very nice.”
The full list of nominees:
Best Feature:
The Squid and the Whale
Brokeback Mountain
Good Night, and Good Luck
Capote
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Best Male Lead:
Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Terrence Howard, Hustle &amp; Flow
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck
Best Female Lead:
Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale
Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
Dina Korzun, Forty Shades of Blue
S. Epatha Merkerson, Lackawanna Blues
Cyndi Williams, Room
Best Supporting Male:
Firdous Bamji, The War Within
Matt Dillon, Crash
Jesse Eisenberg, The Squid and the Whale
Barry Pepper, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Jeffrey Wright, Broken Flowers
Best Supporting Female:
Amy Adams, Junebug
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Happy Endings
Allison Janney, Our Very Own
Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain
Robin Wright Penn, Nine Lives
Best Director:
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale
Gregg Araki, Mysterious Skin
Rodrigo Garcia, Nine Lives
Best First Feature:
Paul Haggis, Crash
George C. Wolfe, Lackawanna Blues
Miranda July, Me and You and Everyone We Know
Mike Mills, Thumbsucker
Duncan Tucker, Transamerica
John Cassavetes Award (feature made for less than $500,000):
Brick
Conventioneers
Jellysmoke
The Puffy Chair
Room
Best Screenplay:
Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo and Tom Glynn, The War Within
Guillermo Arriaga, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale
Dan Futterman, Capote
Rodrigo Garcia, Nine Lives
Best First Screenplay:
Kenneth Hanes, Fixing Frank
Miranda July, Me and You and Everyone We Know
Angus MacLachlan, Junebug
Sabina Murray, The Beautiful Country
Duncan Tucker, Transamerica
Best Cinematography:
Robert Elswit, Good Night, and Good Luck
John Foster, Keane
Adam Kimmel, Capote
Chris Menges, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Harris Savides, Last Days
Best Foreign Film:
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Romania)
Duck Season (Mexico)
Head-On (Germany/Turkey)
Paradise Now (Palestine/Netherlands/Germany/France)
Tony Takitani (Japan)
Best Documentary:
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Grizzly Man
La Sierra
Romantico
Sir! No Sir!

At the height of his writing fame Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) becomes captivated by a small story in the New York Times about a family of four murdered in their Kansas farmhouse by a shotgun at close range. The diminutive bespectacled author known up to this point for Breakfast at Tiffanys and writing about the New York social scene heads out to Kansas for The New Yorker magazine with his assistant Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) who would later write To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee helps Capote fit into the small town that is rocked by the murders and introduces Capote to the townsfolk including the investigator Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper) who is hot on the trail of the killers Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino). Lee keeps Capote in check as does his editor William Shawn (Bob Balaban) and longtime partner Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood). But Capote is transfixed by Smith and ends up spending a lot of time with him in jail after the trial. Inevitably the small Kansas town tragedy leads Capote to his definitive work In Cold Blood becoming an obsession for the self-indulgent author. Capote seemingly wants to help get Smith and Hickock an appeal after they are convicted to hang for the murders of the Clutter family. But truly he is more concerned with himself. He lies cajoles and fools himself as he toils over the book. He tells people rather callously that he hopes their appeals will end so he could have an ending to the book. And when they do hang Capote is there. But he never completes another book ever again.
After critics saw Hoffman's performance at the Toronto International Film Festival one of the prevailing thoughts is that he's this year's Jamie Foxx. He's the man to beat for the Best Actor Oscar for his spot-on portrayal of the irritatingly gifted writer who could get anyone to talk about anything. Hoffman is known for getting into his roles rather deeply but he can go overboard and has been known to milk his parts to the point of stealing attention away from everything else in the movie (think Cold Mountain or Red Dragon). But for Capote he's expected to be over the top. Not only will Hoffman most assuredly get a nomination but the movie could be a Best Picture contender as well as nominations for Keener Collins and Dan Futterman for the screenplay. Another nearly hidden but precious role is handled nicely by Amy Ryan as Marie Dewey the Kansas housewife who coos over Capote's visit to their community and ends up giving him the credibility to gain access to the mindset of the town.
Taking this true story to the big screen is certainly a challenge when you have the classic film In Cold Blood out there but Capote fills in a lot of the gaps that the previous film--and the book--leave out. And it is also telling that there are two films being been made about Capote during the time he wrote In Cold Blood. Have You Heard? starring Brit Toby Jones as the diminutive writer and Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee is due to be released in 2006. But Capote won the race--and could very well dampen the other's chances. Director Bennett Miller is old school chums with writer/actor Futterman and Hoffman--and Capote is obviously a labor of love between them. Futterman may get too wordy in a few of the scenes especially between Capote and Smith but under Miller's guidance they are tense moments nonetheless confined to a jail cell. Futterman had access to the actual letters between Capote and Smith and used them word for word in the script. Without comment Miller offers ugly sides to all the major characters and shows all of their duplicity in a stark and frank way. The film has a documentary feel to it sticking to the facts and avoiding any preachiness. It offers a window into the world of New Journalism and the poetic license seen in creative non-fiction and fictional biographies so prevalent today.

Portrayed Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl in "A Mighty Heart," who was kidnapped and killed in 2002 while reporting in Pakistan

Appeared in the telefilms "Thicker Than Blood" (TNT) and "When Trumpets Fade" (HBO)

Appeared as the brother of the main character in the CBS drama series "Judging Amy"; left series early in the 2001-2002 season

Had featured role in the Off-Broadway play "Dealer's Choice"

Film debut in small role in "The Fisher King"

Summary

Dan Futterman had an impressive run for a young actor, transitioning easily between stage, television and film for fifteen years before penning the Academy Award-nominated script for "Capote" (2005) and deciding to put his acting on hold. From his breakthrough role as the straight son of Robin Williams in "The Birdcage" (1996) to a popular recurring spot on "Judging Amy" (CBS, 1999-2005) to a stint in "Angels in America" on Broadway, Futterman always lent a sparkling intelligence and grounded presence to his work. After briefly returning from his foray into screenwriting, Futterman delivered a sterling performance in the emotionally-charged political drama "A Mighty Heart" (2007), playing slain <i>Wall Street Journal</i> reporter Daniel Pearl, a role that helped propel an already accelerating career.

Education

Name

Columbia University

Notes

"I probably, at this point, feel more comfortable doing theater. I feel I'm still figuring out film acting, but I like both of them in very different ways."---Dan Futterman, quoted by The Associated Press, May 13, 1998.